Hi Will,
I haven’t read the entire anti-bullying bill yet but am looking for consequences that will be put into effect for the bullies and their parents. If parents and bullies do not experience serious consequences, bullying will continue no matter how much punishment is dealt to teachers.
Mary Cummings
Don’t think that there are punishments for teachers, but I was thinking of you and all the conversations that we have had as we voted to put new obligations on teachers.
The bill does involve parents too — requires notice to them, etc. It doesn’t put the whole burden on teachers.
I believe there was discussion of a fine for teachers who fail to report bullying and am glad that did not become part of the bill. However, my take is that teachers are the only ones held accountable for any aspect of the problem while parents are the ones who instill basic values and give the kids cell phones and unmonitored internet access. Reporting is useless without consequences for the offenders – it’s just more paperwork for teachers.
The bill does create consequences by requiring the involvement of law enforcement under circumstances to be further defined by regulation — this was an area of a lot of discussion and the final version from conference committee will be interesting to see.
Ah yes, the devil’s in the details. Thank you very much for the information and I look forward to seeing how the bill develops. Involvement of law enforcement would make the lesson a whole lot easier to teach.